Ask the Author: GREG SCORZO
Answered Questions (10)
GREG SCORZO
The two at the top of my list are The Secret Life of Addie LaRue by E.V. Schwab and The Other You by Joyce Carol Oats. Both are good writers to read when you're doing the first drafts of your second novel.
GREG SCORZO
I wouldn't! I can't think of anything more terrifying than existing in someone else's fictional world. If you're interesting, impactful, or vulnerable, there's a good chance you will die horrifically in some surprise twist!
GREG SCORZO
Find a way to keep writing for a few years, consistently. Show your work to others who like the same stuff as you and get feedback. Notice your skill level going up. Keep drafting and drafting, but no when to stop and consider a piece either finished or worthy of the trash bin.
The more you write, the more you will find that you have a style and a unique bag of tricks that are all your own. That moment is when you try to assemble something as a book for publication.
Or at least, that's how it was for me.
The more you write, the more you will find that you have a style and a unique bag of tricks that are all your own. That moment is when you try to assemble something as a book for publication.
Or at least, that's how it was for me.
GREG SCORZO
You get complete control over your world. With the other arts, the world you create is either too ambiguous to completely control (music), or the specificity of the world means you have to allow others to make creative decisions (film). But with writing, you are painting worlds with symbols and information of your choosing. You can't get more control of a narrative than that.
The process of spinning a narrative is a lot like delivering a bit of gossip. Unlike real life, you can make up the gossip to make it way more juicy than anything that would really happen. But if it's good gossip, it's still realistic enough to be believable, despite the juiciness. And in its believability, the fiction will contain a degree of truth. It will illuminating something about the world, by being a compulsively readable, hyper-real, highly focussed and completely imagined set of information about our world.
That's storytelling, in a nutshell. It's the midway point between lying and delivering a parable.
The process of spinning a narrative is a lot like delivering a bit of gossip. Unlike real life, you can make up the gossip to make it way more juicy than anything that would really happen. But if it's good gossip, it's still realistic enough to be believable, despite the juiciness. And in its believability, the fiction will contain a degree of truth. It will illuminating something about the world, by being a compulsively readable, hyper-real, highly focussed and completely imagined set of information about our world.
That's storytelling, in a nutshell. It's the midway point between lying and delivering a parable.
GREG SCORZO
I don't get it. I only have two states.
I feel like I could write about something quite cool. Or I haven't thought of anything cool to write. But I don't ever have, "I could write about something quite cool, but no words are coming out." I only get the "no words are coming out" when I'm forced to write something I'm not excited by.
I had this experience a lot in school, mistakenly believing I had writer's block.
I feel like I could write about something quite cool. Or I haven't thought of anything cool to write. But I don't ever have, "I could write about something quite cool, but no words are coming out." I only get the "no words are coming out" when I'm forced to write something I'm not excited by.
I had this experience a lot in school, mistakenly believing I had writer's block.
GREG SCORZO
An amazing group of kind, intelligent and deeply loving humans have lived and died, for as long as mankind has existed. They are atheists, and so they are all now in hell, experiencing the worst torments imaginable – forever.
GREG SCORZO
In the mid 00s, a cousin of mine was once sexually assaulted at his daughter's birthday party by Christian fundamentalist clowns. The clowns used to ride on skateboards to different parts of Huntington Beach. They would then throw bags of human poop at the windows of adult entertainment stores.
By 2005, the Christian clown gangs found a way to perform at children's birthday parties - if they had a bone to pick with one or both of the parents. They would antagonise the kids, and then beat up the parents in front of the kids, reciting Christian rhymes about how sinners will someday pay for ruining Orange County with decadence, racism, and corruption. Then the clowns would normally hot wire one the cars and drive away, never to be seen again.
This happened to my cousin because he had a reputation for being a racist at work, and he used to make comments to the effect that all the Mexicans working for him secretly wanted to bang his hot wife. I think one of the guys who worked for him was secretly moon lighting as a Christian fundamentalist clown doing magic routines at children's birthday parties.
One day, my cousin stupidly hired some clowns for his daughter's third birthday party, and within an hour, the clowns started irritating the kids. My cousin made the even dumber mistake of punching one of the clowns, and then all the other clowns started hitting him with baseball bats, honking their horns, and spraying his screaming wife and daughter with whip cream. At some point, one of the clowns pulled down my cousin's pants and did something...
Let's just say it was not very Christian.
I used to see these clowns at the beach, back when I lived in Los Angeles. They would skateboard up and down the non-sandy areas with two ice cream cones. If they saw a pretty white girl they thought was arrogant and sinful, they'd take the ice cones and smash them in her ears, quickly skating away as the blonde boyfriend would get angry and attempt to chase the clown down the peer. Then the other clowns would encircle the boyfriend and beat him up in front of his girlfriend, who would be crying with ice cream all over her hair. Sometimes the clowns would pelt the both of them with shit instead of ice cream, while shouting verses from the Bible.
When the clowns were running away from the police, they would often stick their tongues out at the cops and make vomiting noises. I have no idea why.
To this day, I have no idea who these clowns were, or what exactly their theology was. I just remember that they hated modern society, and were deeply angry at attractive white people, porn stars, and arrogant blonde men with money. My cousin and his wife ticked all the boxes except for porn star.
The clown who sexually assaulted my cousin had a very long tongue, like Gene Simmons. It may have been a woman.
By 2005, the Christian clown gangs found a way to perform at children's birthday parties - if they had a bone to pick with one or both of the parents. They would antagonise the kids, and then beat up the parents in front of the kids, reciting Christian rhymes about how sinners will someday pay for ruining Orange County with decadence, racism, and corruption. Then the clowns would normally hot wire one the cars and drive away, never to be seen again.
This happened to my cousin because he had a reputation for being a racist at work, and he used to make comments to the effect that all the Mexicans working for him secretly wanted to bang his hot wife. I think one of the guys who worked for him was secretly moon lighting as a Christian fundamentalist clown doing magic routines at children's birthday parties.
One day, my cousin stupidly hired some clowns for his daughter's third birthday party, and within an hour, the clowns started irritating the kids. My cousin made the even dumber mistake of punching one of the clowns, and then all the other clowns started hitting him with baseball bats, honking their horns, and spraying his screaming wife and daughter with whip cream. At some point, one of the clowns pulled down my cousin's pants and did something...
Let's just say it was not very Christian.
I used to see these clowns at the beach, back when I lived in Los Angeles. They would skateboard up and down the non-sandy areas with two ice cream cones. If they saw a pretty white girl they thought was arrogant and sinful, they'd take the ice cones and smash them in her ears, quickly skating away as the blonde boyfriend would get angry and attempt to chase the clown down the peer. Then the other clowns would encircle the boyfriend and beat him up in front of his girlfriend, who would be crying with ice cream all over her hair. Sometimes the clowns would pelt the both of them with shit instead of ice cream, while shouting verses from the Bible.
When the clowns were running away from the police, they would often stick their tongues out at the cops and make vomiting noises. I have no idea why.
To this day, I have no idea who these clowns were, or what exactly their theology was. I just remember that they hated modern society, and were deeply angry at attractive white people, porn stars, and arrogant blonde men with money. My cousin and his wife ticked all the boxes except for porn star.
The clown who sexually assaulted my cousin had a very long tongue, like Gene Simmons. It may have been a woman.
GREG SCORZO
Two things. 1. First first album of electronic music.
2. My next novel. It will be a collection of four related stories that are some of the most controversial fiction I have ever seen. I have no idea what the response to this book will be. It's definitely a book that a conventional publisher wouldn't touch with a ten foot poll.
2. My next novel. It will be a collection of four related stories that are some of the most controversial fiction I have ever seen. I have no idea what the response to this book will be. It's definitely a book that a conventional publisher wouldn't touch with a ten foot poll.
GREG SCORZO
It's music mostly that does it. I can listen to a piece of music and get an entire character or plot just from one song. Music is not only a great inspiration, but it's a great motivator. But once I have an idea I like, I no longer need to be inspired. It's just a matter of banging it out every day until it's finished as a draft I can then show to other people.
GREG SCORZO
With my novel Love Before Covid, I started to wonder if it was possible for a clinically diagnosed psychopath to be a genuinely nice person. What peaked my curiosity was the claim that psychopaths are often surgeons, astronauts, and people who have families. I started wondering what it would be like if a man dumped his girlfriend for being a psychopath, and whether or not this decision might be a mistake. That's where it all started.
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